- Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly played a video game the first time he was interviewed on live TV.
- Author Michael Lewis said a clip showed SBF’s eyes moving as he tried to win the game while on air.
- The “Big Short” author is about to release a book on the FTX cofounder.
FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly played a video game during his first appearance on live TV.
That’s according to the “Big Short” author Michael Lewis who is about to release a book on the crypto founder. The book, which is called: “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” is set to be released on Tuesday — the same day Bankman-Fried’s trial begins.
Lewis said during an interview with CBS News 60 Minutes that Bankman-Fried attended his first TV interview in “his cargo shorts and his messy hair and he’s playing video games while he’s on the air.”
He continued: “And if you watch the clip you can see his eyes going back and forth, back and forth. It’s because he’s trying to win his video game at the same time he’s on the air.”
The incident is not the first time the former FTX CEO has been caught playing video games in professional settings. He is known to be an avid “League of Legends” player.
Bankman-Fried was reportedly once caught playing the game during a pitch meeting with investors from Sequoia Capital, according to a since-removed profile of the founder on the firm’s website.
Representatives for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment on the story, made outside normal working hours.
Bankman-Fried is currently facing seven charges of fraud and conspiracy relating to the collapse of his crypto exchange in November 2022.
Former execs at FTX and sister company Alameda Research including Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh have all previously pleaded guilty to fraud charges and agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department.
